Flexible Hours – The need to know

When the government’s new Child Care subsidy was introduced, the Smith family thought that they would be better off. The reality however was that the out of pocket fees for their two children to attend early learning five days a week increased.

This is because the amount of subsidised hours offered by the government under the new funding structure decreased by 20 hours a fortnight.

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Thankfully, the Smith family’s early learning centre introduced Flexible Hours. By reducing their attendance hours to 9 hours a day from 12 hours under the new model, the family were able to save $141.31 a fortnight, or $7348.25 a year!

The Smith family were not alone – already hundreds of families have made the switch to Flexible Hours so that they don’t use up their subsidised hours faster than necessary.

With Flexible Hours, families are given the opportunity to make the most of the Child Care Subsidy. They can choose from three options – 9-hour, 10- hour and full day options, enabling them to claim subsidy benefits against the hours that they use.

Better still, the Flexible Hours option doesn’t set a limit on start and finish times. There are generous grace periods with no fees or penalties. So, if there is a day you intended to put your child in for ten hours, but it ended up being 11 hours due to unexpected work commitments, you won’t be penalised for this. The additional hour will simply be added to your total claimable hours!

Want to find out how flexible hours will work for your unique needs? Be sure to check out our Subsidy Calculator to see how it can benefit you!

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